1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electric connector, and in particular to an electric connector having elastic pins.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of precise electrical products, the pin number of electric connectors increases gradually. In addition, the traces on a circuit board also become complicated because plural layers of traces are formed. Because the circuit board has plural layers of traces, instead of a through-hole connection method, a surface connection method is utilized to connect an electric connector to the circuit board in order not to influence the internal trace arrangement of the circuit board. Therefore, the number of through holes on the circuit board may be decreased, and the internal layers of the circuit board are free from being influenced.
In order to flatten the connection between the pins of the electric connector and the circuit board, it is possible to modify the pins projecting out of the plastic base into tin balls. Referring to FIG. 1, an electric connector with tin balls serving as pins includes a base 10 formed with a plurality of slots 11, each of which having a bottom surface formed with a through hole 14. The connector also includes a plurality of terminals 12 mounted within the slots 11. The lower end of each terminal 12 extends into each through hole 14. The connector further includes a plurality of tin balls 13, each of which is located partially outside the base 10 and connected to the through hole 14 and the terminal 12.
When connecting to the circuit board 15, each tin ball 13 may be partially melted to achieve good connection. Similarly, the pins of the chip may be designed to be tin balls so as to well connect to the circuit board.
Although the electric connector or chip having pins of tin ball type may perfectly connect to the circuit board, additional tin balls have to be implanted during the manufacturing processes, thereby increasing the cost relatively.
If the pins of tin ball type are not adopted, it is quite difficult to keep the flatness of all the pins. Furthermore, the pins of tin ball type also have drawbacks. That is, if the tin balls are too large, the tin balls may be connected to adjacent connection points during tin soldering, whereas the welding result may be poor if the tin balls are too small.
An object of the invention is to provide an electric connector having elastic pins and a chip structure having elastic pins. According to the elastic forces of the pins, when the pins are forced to contact a circuit board, the pins may elastically retract to evenly contact the circuit board.
To achieve the above-mentioned object, an electric connector of the invention includes a base formed with a plurality of slots; and a plurality of terminals inserted into the plurality of slots of the base respectively. Each of the terminals is formed with an elastic pin protruding out of the slot. When the base is forced to contact the circuit board, the pins of the terminals may retract and evenly contact the circuit board.
The invention also provides a chip structure having elastic pins. The chip structure includes: a package body; an integrated circuit disposed in the package body; and a plurality of pins electrically connecting to the integrated circuit and protruding out of the package body, the pins being elastically retractable. With the aid of the elastic function of each pin, the pins may be reliably and electrically connected to the circuit board.